He’s a werewolf with golden retriever energy.

Best friends to mortal enemies
Then to
Acquaintances to friends?

He was her best friend until he betrayed her and she left town. Now she is back and he’s continuously, showing up at her door without an explanation.
What could he want from her? She doesn’t want to forgive him but he’s honesty and regret of how he treated her in high school makes it hard to not forgive him.
Can the be friends again or even maybe more ??

3.5/5
A newly manifested witch reconnects with her best friend turned mortal enemy who happens to be a werewolf.
The prose was very informal, repetitive in places.
It was hard to connect with either the main characters as I found their miscommunications to be frustrating.
Magic was interesting and a witchy familiar appears later in the story. Sentient kitchen items were funny.
A pretty average spicy paranormal romance overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars

I think this had the potential to be a good story but sadly the execution wasn’t there. I enjoyed the idea of a werewolf/witch ex-friends to lovers romance and all of the supernatural elements. I did think there were some funny moments, but they were overshadowed by the constant attempts at witty banter. A lot of the dialogue was just awkward and cringey and unfortunately the spice was too. There was really only a hint of a plot that I wish had been focused on more instead of all of the repetitive interactions.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

2.5 stars

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein has been compared to What We Do in the Shadows and Gilmore Girls — two of my favorite shows ever. I had high hopes going into this one - but unfortunately it was not one of my favorites. I found the interactions to be awkward and cringey — but I will say that there are some funny moments and the connection that the MC has with her late grandmother resonated with me on a deep level. I thought that the smut would save the story but it actually made it worse. I found myself feeling second hand embarrassment throughout the novel and it was a struggle to get through.

I don’t want to negatively rant about this book so I’ll keep my review brief - thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my feedback. I would try more from this author in the future, but I wouldn’t continue with this series. I think I would recommend this to the younger fresh out of high school crowd. Writing a book is hard so I give props to the author for making her dreams come true - she’s been dreaming of writing this for over a decade and I hope that she finds a good fanbase who appreciates her work more than I did.

After the first few pages I refused to continue reading this book. I did not like the the bully trope or the fat shaming. Given that I DNF’d before chapter one was over, I will not rate it on Goodreads

Cassandra returns home to take care of her grandmother's house only to run into her ex-best-friend-turned-nemesis Seth. Add a bunch of supernatural elements and shake well.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I love the world building. The magic system is interesting and innovative. I love that Cassandra's powers manifest as an ancestral knowing. My main problem with this book was that both characters are manic-pixie-dream-girlish and their conversations felt like over-dramatic chittering between pre-teen girls. There was too much quip and not enough substance. As always, your mileage may vary.

🔆| After her grandma passed away, our leading lady Cassandra returns to Hollow Brook to clear out her house. What she doesn’t expect to find there is her ex-bestie from high school Seth! After fat shaming her (allegedly an accident) which had caused her to embarrass herself in front of the whole school, it's not exactly like she is pumped to see him again. This leads us on a cozy spicy adventure as history unravels itself, the present also brings the fact that Seth is a werewolf, Cassandra might be a witch, and a talking raccoon named Pod who drinks tea.

🎀| Let me start by saying, they ate this up with that cover. I am obsessed with it and it's stunning! Now I love a good paranormal romance and thought this would be up my alley but the info dump at the start and the fact that all the characters including both MCs were either from high school or still living in the memory of high school put me off. I did go into this expecting it to be goofy and while I did love some aspects of it overall it was a weekend read, not the best thing I have ever read but certainly not the worst. I also fully gave an extra star for the talking raccoon!

Thank you to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC via NetGalley before the publishing date and for my first ARC! This ARC was kindly given to me for an honest review.

But this book wasn’t for me sadly I just couldn’t get past the fat shaming aspect and the writing style wasn’t keeping me hooked.

With that being said I still think everyone should give it a chance we all have different opinions/taste!

Super cute story. It took me a while to get into it as Cassie and Seth would at ramble on circle around conversations and literally talk about nothing. Fortunately the chemistry between them kept me going, they were just too cute to give up on. Once the story hit the halfway mark it went from 0-100 with the spice. Good lord (fans herself).
Would love to see where Charlotte Stein takes us in this universe, it has great bones.

2.5/5 stars. I really didn’t like this book and I knew I wasn’t going to within the first chapter. I almost DNF’d this one, and I never not finish books. The banter between the two main characters was very juvenile for 27.-year-olds, It was hard not to cringe while reading. It feels like there was a lot of unnecessary information that I ended up skimming over because it was very dry and felt like a highschooler’s English assignment trying to reach a word count. It was also very predictable and easy to see what the next move was going to be.

On the positive side, I do like how the author wrote the spicy scenes. And the last half of the book is mostly the spicy scenes. This writing was a lot more grown-up and flowed a lot better, and most of the juvenile banter was gone.

How to help a hungry werewolf is a fun story for those who like supernatural stories. Seth and Cassandra are a sweet couple that you cannot help but cheer for.

This was just super funny and a good time. It wasn’t the best thing to ever exist, but man was it a really really good time, it reminded me a lot of when I was younger reading on Wattpad, but with much higher quality of material and it was just a lot of fun.

Enemies to lovers, childhood best friends turned mortal enemies after Seth starts to hang with the “cool crowd” and fat shames Cassie. So there is a bit of a bully romance here but it’s not extreme. Anyway, Cassie hasn’t seen her ex best friend since <i>the</i> incident in high school but now she’s back in town cleaning out her grandmother’s house, who recently passed, only to discover that Seth was close friends with her grandmother and she had no idea.

A cute, quirky small town paranormal romance perfect for fall. Plenty of spice. CS has a way of writing that is a bit exaggerated in this story and I’m not sure I was a fan. There is a general tone of nothing being too serious and the sentences are a bit choppy and quippy. I think a reader will find it fun and lighthearted or just obnoxious. I teetered between the two. I can't say I loved this but it was a cute read with some interesting storylines set up for future books.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Gilmore Girls X What We Do In The Shadows

So clearly, this tag line grabbed my interest and didn’t let go. Not to mention… I will devour all and any cozy monster romance.

BLURB: When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook to clear out her late
grandmother’s ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. Her
former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can’t
imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again.

Until she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around: he’s
an actual werewolf, who’s certain she’s the witch that will ease his suffering. But Cassie just isn’t sure
if she can trust him again. So Seth offers a pact: he’ll teach her all about her undiscovered magic, and
she will brew the potions he needs. No feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf
striking a deal.

🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝

So when I originally finished this book, I was a little conflicted. I think it’s because my normal romance gravitation is toward books that lean heavily toward the romance. However, this book was a rom-com with an emphasis on COM. That being said, I finished this book, and now I can’t stop thinking about it.

I want to note, there are definitely a few things that will trigger some, so WARNING: There is very little grovel or apology, and there is an instance of fat shaming… neither of these shitty things do we really get an explanation for until the end. In addition, the heavy emphasis on comedy, made this book feel more like a YA with some dirty talk… rather than a romance novel between two almost 30 year old adults.

Personally, I thought that this book was cute enough that I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, and there are very few instances where I won’t finish something.

Overall, I’m not mad I read this, it was something different, had potential, and the dirty talk was good.

Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Thanks to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC! Loved this so much!! The banter was so good. Also loved the plus-size rep. Definitely will read more from this author.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an eARC of this novel!

Ah, where do I even begin with this novel? I suppose I should have known better from the beginning that this wouldn't be my type of book. It's adult fiction about a werewolf. I should not be surprised by the content.

But I hated so much of it. This book has a lot of explicit scenes, which I'm not a fan of, but I can't critique that aspect much since it makes sense that it would be in this novel. But the novel itself doesn't take itself seriously. The main characters made poop and fart jokes like there was no tomorrow, then they'd talk about how much they wanted to have sex, and I just couldn't invest myself into the storyline.

Not only did the book have that, the two main characters were just annoying to me. Seth not as much, but he fed into Cass, and Cass annoyed me so much. She is very insecure, which makes sense at times, but there are times where it takes so much convincing for her to believe something that I had to skim. This book could have been so much shorter. There was so much pointless yapping.

Beyond that, the main villains, though they were bullies, made the plot feel very high school-esque. I think this would have better read in a high school scenario and not as adults. I understand that sometimes comments can be very hurtful, but at the same time, why give people that power over you? It's been a decade.

The ending of this book was also a little insane. They have a big sex scene, and it lasts for a while, then afterward, they move on. Two pages later, they have yet another giant sex scene, and they act like this is new content? And then she wakes up and thinks he betrayed her, but it seems clear that something happened, in my opinion. But she's prepared to kill him? I think the twist at the end was interesting, but I will not be continuing this series.

honestly this book had the bully trope, tied with fatphobia for a great problematic cake. it left a bad taste in my mouth personally. I feel as if the weight wasnt such a major conversation of the bullying the mmc would probably have been redeemed in my eyes. but he wasn't, and it made this a hard hard read and i ended up dnfing sadly. i love seeing plus size women in books, as someone plus sized.. but my god i hate the negative annotation to it as well. can we not just live?

Before I begin, I would like to thank Charlotte Stein for allowing me to read her upcoming book, How to Help a Hungry Werewolf, which will be available on October 1st, 2024.

Cassandra Camberwell comes back to her hometown Hollow Brook to sort things from her deceased grandmother’s house and finds Seth Brubaker at her door. It might have been good to see her ex-best friend, if he wasn’t part of the worst thing that happened to her in high school and her being convinced, he wants to be cruel to her once more. But then she realizes that he’s here because he’s actually a werewolf that believes she is the witch that can help him feel better. Seth makes her a deal: if he can teach her about her untapped magical powers, then she could brew the potions that will help him. Nothing personal, until there are mating-bonds, bullies from the last and talking raccoons. Can Cassie and Seth heal from the past? And most importantly, will they discover what they want for their futures?

This book was brilliant. You have Cassie, a wonderful young woman whose sass and quick thinking made me cheer her on throughout the entire story. You have Seth, a young werewolf that has made a lot of mistakes but is rather anxious and sweet. There were many sweet moments as Seth helped her learn about the magical world and beings that are a part of it, and the parts where either Seth, Cassie, or both of them were freaking out were relatable, chaotic, and absolutely hilarious. Also, this book talks a lot about body image and some of the trauma that jerks give to others because they feel like they can, and the healing from those that were bullied on the other side in the future. This book has quite a bit of spice and I thought that the two main characters’ emotions, vulnerabilities, and dedication to doing their best to help each other were well written and heartfelt. Overall, if you like curvy heroines, sweet and rambling werewolves, humor, magical creatures, romance, spice, and karma, then I would highly recommend this book.

I was kindly provided with the ARC of this book by NetGalley and the editors in exchange of an honest review

3⭐️

This was my first book from the author and I did enjoyed the paranormal stories and romance of Cassie and Seth, BUT, I did not enjoyed quite much the fact that he shaming her in front of all their school because of her body…. This is a TW of the book indeed, but I think it was a little unnecessary, idk maybe for me it would be it if he just followed “his friends”, maybe not having her back at that point would be enough but he was actually the one who hurt her so that made me had a hard time trying to connect with Seth’s character.

I know he made up that mistake, but I do really think it would be better if he just made a tiny little mistake instead of what happened 😅

Overall it was a good book with a great plot, and I look forward to keep reading this author and perhaps find something that makes my heart racing 🙊✨

This took me a few chapters to really get into and to really grasp the writing style. There were a few moments in the first half, where I had to reread a section cause it wasn't making since in my brain. But the more I read of it, the more her style started to make sense. But I really loved this honest friendship and I loved that the FMC was just such a total badass. I hope she writes more in this series for other characters, but that we still see these two and Pod again!

Thank you to NetGalley and to St Martins Press for my digital ARC!!